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Psychological Distress Tied to All-cause Dementia Risk
Psychological distress symptoms were associated with a 17% to 24% higher etiological risk of dementia, according to a cohort study recently published in JAMA Neurology.
“The findings of this large Finnish cohort study suggest that competing risk of death, reverse causation, and ascertainment bias are likely to affect estimation of the association of mental health with dementia risk,” researchers noted. “After considering these phenomena, we suggest that symptoms of psychological distress are etiological risk factors for dementia but only weakly increase the incidence of dementia in the presence of competing risk of death.”
Related: Tool Developed to Measure Individual Dementia Risk
Researchers used FINRISK Study surveys collected periodically from 1972 to 2007 and matched each participant to the Finnish Health Register data for dementia and mortality up to December 31, 2017. Participants without dementia who had complete exposure data were included. Researchers monitored self-reported psychological distress symptoms in patients including stress, depressive mood, exhaustion, and nervousness.
Out of 67,688 total participants—51% women with an average age of 45 years—7935 were diagnosed with dementia over a mean follow-up of 25 years. A multivariable Poisson model was used to associate psychological distress with all-cause dementia. Incidence rate ratios ranged from 1.17 (95% CI, 1.08-1.26) for exhaustion to 1.24 (95% CI, 1.11-1.38) for stress and remained significant in sensitivity analyses. A Fine–Gray model was used to find associations for all symptoms other than depressive mood and found an 8% to 12% rise in dementia occurrence. All symptoms showed significant associations with competing risk of death in both models.
